


Rhodey and Tony: Alternate Universes

by Not Applicable (not_applicable)



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Fluff, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, a different kind of Superfamily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-30
Updated: 2014-11-30
Packaged: 2018-02-27 11:53:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2692007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/not_applicable/pseuds/Not%20Applicable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of short Rhodey/Tony AUs originally posted on <a href="http://notfknapplicabe.tumblr.com">my fangrrl Tumblr</a>.  No matter who they are in life or where they are in time and space, Tony Stark and Jim Rhodes will always be A Thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Literally Bumping Into Each Other

Tony supposed he should stand up and dust himself off all proper-like, tug at his lapels and cuffs as if he was James fucking Bond.  _Get up off your ass_ , he thought, though his body responded with nothing more than a lame cough and weak grin into the smiling face hovering over his.  _Arch an eyebrow and ask him if he comes here often_.  He immediately disregarded that shitty come-on - bad idea in present company.  The guy was in desert camo and they were both sprawled on the floor outside of an elevator in the Pentagon, where Tony had been heading to meet some defense department guys before he’d barreled right into one.  The name tag read _Rhodes_.

Rhodes moved first, pushing himself up to sit back on his knees.  He extended a hand and Tony took it without thinking, and Rhodes pulled Tony up off of the ground as he stood as well, just grinning like it was effortless.

"Sorry," Tony said, and he peeked at the insignias on his uniform.  "Colonel." Tony realized he still had the guy’s hand and so he began to shake it, because _fuck_ letting go.  “Tony Stark.  I’m here to meet -“

"Me," Rhodes said.  "You’re my two-thirty."  Tony choked on the air and blushed because _of course_ he hadn’t been listening when Pepper told him who to ask for once he got to DC, and if he’d have known it was _this guy_ … “I heard you have good news for us, Mr. Stark.  I look forward to hearing more about your new repulsor tech.”

Tony took a breath and found his cool again, then squared his shoulders before straightening his sunglasses a bit.  “I look forward to telling you,” he said.  “Over dinner.”


	2. Teacher/Single Parent

Lila insisted she was old enough to ride the bus now, but Rhodey said it was best if he continued to bring her to and from school.  The bus stop was a quarter mile from the house, after all, and he didn’t know some of the kids she’d have to ride with. 

"You just wanna see Mr. Stark," she said as he dropped her off that morning, and he just laughed, kissed her face, and leaned over to open the door for her.  It swung open and she hopped out, running into the fray of tweens herding their way into her school. 

Rhodey watched as Lila greeted her suspendered and spectacled chemistry teacher as she passed him on the front steps, a former rich kid from America’s _actual_ wealthiest family who’d rather teach Lila how to blow up the kitchen than jet-set with his peers.  Mr. Stark worked drop-off duty every morning, and he and Rhodey hadn’t gotten along at first.  They’d had a pretty intense parent-teacher conference after Lila set the garage on fire, and then another after the kitchen thing, and a nicer one to plan her trip to the national science fair.  And another nice one while she was gone for said fair.  And then one while she was at the international science fair, too.  And last night.

Mr. Stark patted Lila’s shoulder warmly and ushered her inside, and he pressed a kiss into his palm before lifting it to wave at Rhodey over the sea of students surrounding him, just like he did every morning.


	3. Waking Up With Amnesia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (warning for traumatic injury/car accidents)

Tony shut the door behind him, but he didn’t turn around just yet.  The doctors had told him not to be alarmed by all the bandages - they’d be off at the end of the week and the swelling would go down, too.  They’d also stressed that he take it slow with Rhodey, that he shouldn't take it personally if Rhodey didn’t remember him just yet.  So far Rhodey hadn’t remembered anyone else, but they said he had the potential to make a full recovery.  His mom would be glad to hear that.  They said Rhodey asked if he was married when he noticed his wedding ring, and they said yes.

"Hi," Tony heard in a muffled voice behind him, the tone impersonal and too polite.  He turned around and Rhodey was sitting up in bed with his entire head wrapped in bandages, both eyes blackened and his cheek swollen from a broken jaw that was wired together and finally healing.  There was nothing left of the car that they pulled him from, the EMTs said.  They honestly weren’t sure _how_ he survived.

Any other day, Tony would have clapped his hands and made a joke, called Rhodey something off-color before kissing him and making him promise to _never fucking do that again_.  But the man sitting in front of him was smiling graciously like a bank teller would to the stranger in front of them.  He had no idea who Tony was.

"Hi, Rhodey," Tony said.  He walked up to the bed with a straight back but he knew his eyes were blinking horribly.  He had a letter in his pocket from Lila that he promised he wouldn’t read before giving it to Daddy. "I’ve got something -" Tony fished around in his pocket.  "It’s from -" _our daughter_ , he wanted to say, but as soon as his throat began to close and he felt himself wanting to sink into the floor, Rhodey reached out and placed a hand on top of Tony’s, on top of the one that still rested on the bed.

"What’s your name?" Rhodey asked.

"I’m Tony."  He tried to smile through his awkward introduction.  "We’re.  I’m your -"

"You’re my husband," Rhodey said, slow and sloppy from his surgery and the medication.

"Yeah," Tony said, and Rhodey squeezed his hand at that and nodded, almost as if knowing this was reassuring for him.  Tony’s fear melted away at the strength in Rhodey’s touch, the way he sighed as his thumb swirled along the top of Tony’s hand.

"We have a little girl, too," Tony said, and Rhodey’s eyebrows lifted as best they could as he continued to fight the pull of the anesthesia.

"Wow," Rhodey mumbled.  "I hope she looks like you."


	4. Meeting Again At A High School Reunion

"Still smoking under the bleachers?"

Tony resisted the urge to fling the cigarette away and run for it.  He was 38 years old, damnit - twenty years too late to start worrying about being caught.  And he knew who it was, anyway, and he was slightly disappointed to see a tall, broad-shouldered adult dressed in khakis instead of the skinny teenager whose AFROTC uniform always seemed to swallow him whole.

"I figured you’d wear your fancy dress for this event," Tony said, and Jim laughed.  "Twenty years since we made out under here."

"Who says we’re making out?" Jim responded, and it made Tony nervous for just a moment before he saw Jim take a few steps closer.

"Then why’d you come down here?" Tony said, walking towards Jim as well.  "Why did you _always_ come down here?”

Tony knew he’d taste like cigarettes when their lips met, and he remembered the way Jim would complain before and after they made out so many years ago.  But right now he just had a hand in Tony’s back pocket and and his tongue in Tony’s mouth, their bodies anchored against a metal support rail while Tony sucked Jim’s bottom lip.

"Because I don’t smoke - never have," Jim said into his mouth, "but I love the taste of cigarettes."


	5. Partners In Crime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wherein Iron Man is an outlaw and Rhodey is the chief of police.

"Are you fucking _serious_ , Jim?!”

"Sergeant Hill."

Maria took a breath.  “I’m sorry, Captain, but what - we _can’t_ let Stark go again, not this time.  I know he’s breaking into our computer systems, compromising government networks - and he’s _definitely_ selling info to that flying robot.  I don’t care if he’s a trillionaire -“

"Stark is sharp, but not _that_ sharp,” Jim said coolly.  “Unless you have tangible evidence of it.”  She groaned and looked away bitterly, and Jim tried not to grin at that.  “Sorry, Maria, but we don’t have enough to charge him with anything.  Cut him loose.”

 

* * *

  

Jim found a duffle bag on the front seat of his car when he left for the night. There were cameras in the garage but he knew not to worry about them.  He waited until he got home to count the bundles of cash inside and some quick math told him that it was all there.  It wasn’t dirty money.  It was Tony Stark’s own honestly-earned cash, given in exchange for his silence and cooperation.  Jim never spent it anyway.  He just stuck it in a trust for his niece.

Jim walked down the hall and to his bedroom.  Tony was asleep but he stirred quickly when Jim walked in, and he grinned and hummed playfully while Jim undressed for bed.  Tony knew that Jim never kept the money he gave him, but he told Jim that he didn’t mind.  They both preferred to settle their debts to each other in a different way.

"Hurry up," Tony said, and he extended his arms, reached out for Jim’s hands. "I owe you one, don’t I?"


	6. Exes Reuniting After Not Speaking For Years

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (doesn't even have to be an AU for these two haha amirite)

Iron Man was over.  Iron Patriot was over.  The Avengers were over.  It was all over.  As over as Rhodey and Tony could get after being apart for years - and not just professionally.  Rhodey was a General who did more public appearances and interviews than actual work, and Tony was still throwing ridiculous parties for his birthdays now that he wasn’t beholden to his company or superheroing.  They were both pretty much retired, free of the baggage that made their old relationship feel like pushing a boulder up a hill, but after eight years of never even being in the same room with Tony Stark, Rhodey didn’t think it was worth revisiting.

Rhodey still saw Pepper plenty, and she’d helped Carol move her stuff out a few weeks ago.  Pepper often told him that Tony was “doing well” without him even asking, and she began to deliver this message more and more often after Rhodey and Carol’s recent split.

"I see what you’re doing," Rhodey said as they rearranged furniture in his bedroom, trying to make it look like he hadn’t shared this space for five years with someone else.  "We’re old men now, Pep.  Things are…we can’t be the same."

"Who says you _would_ be?  Who says that’s even worth trying for?” 

 

* * *

 

Rhodey should have been livid.  It always rubbed him the wrong way, when Tony would break into his house and mill around as if he lived there, and Rhodey would come home at two in the morning to find Tony on his couch and dozing off in the midst of pizza and _The George Michael Sports Machine_ reruns.  Tony couldn’t understand Rhodey’s need for privacy, his desire to have something for his own.  Rhodey had always assumed that this was because Tony was a selfish spoiled prick, but they were both over 60 now and Rhodey didn’t have ambitions to protect or lies that he _had to_ tell, lest those ambitions be squashed.  Tony didn’t like being alone - never had.  Rhodey was silly to expect that to change after so many years.

So he just muted the television and sat down on the couch hard enough to jostle the silver-haired man beside him ( _Even his goatee is silver.  Looks better in person.)_ , and he gave a good-natured chuckle while Tony rubbed at his sleepy eyes and mumbled apologies.

"Sorry," he yawned, scooting away a little, groaning between his words as he stretched and twisted, attempting to shake off the sleep. "I know I shouldn’t have snuck in here - I didn’t break anything, I used a hack to disengage your alarm and I got your spare key from Pepper.  So."  Tony was sitting up straight now, not yawning or fidgeting, and Rhodey could see that he was dressed quite nicely though it was so late at night.  "I know it wouldn’t be the same, okay?  That’s not what I’m looking for anyway, and I figure now we can just, you know, be _normal_ together because no one’s trying to kill us anymore and you won’t lose your job.  Things are better now - the world is better, we’re better, and we should -“

"How often does Pepper tell you what we talk about in private?"

Tony sighed and laughed, almost coming across as embarrassed for a moment.  “She tells me every time.  Every single time.  Because I ask her.”  Tony shook his head and laughed again, in spite of himself, and he reached out for a handshake.  “Heya, Rhodey.  Long time.”

"Long time." Rhodey took Tony’s hand, but he didn’t shake it.  He just held it.


End file.
